Vietnam to stage Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Singapore

A scene in Shakespeare’s Hamlet played by artists of the Vietnam National Drama Theater Tuoi Tre

Hamlet is a masterpiece that has been played countless times around the world over the past four years.

In Vietnam, the tragedy was staged for the first time in 2003. Last year, a group of artists at the Vietnam National Drama Theater decided to bring it back to the stage, adding some small changes to make the play more local.

“The play will be performed in Singapore in late March, marking our overseas debut,” Nguyen The Vinh, director of the theater, said.

The Vietnamese version of Hamlet, which has attracted a huge local audience despite an expensive entrance price, is scheduled to be performed on March 26 at 8:00 pm at Victoria Theater.

A day earlier, the crew will have a press conference to present their work to local media.

“Hamlet is a world-renowned spectacle so we must try our best to deliver it to international audiences,” Ta Tuan Minh, who plays Hamlet, said.

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet, is a play written by William Shakespeare at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602.

Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet is called to wreak upon his uncle, Claudius, by the ghost of Hamlet's father, King Hamlet.

Claudius murders his own brother and seizes the throne, also marrying his deceased brother's widow.

The play was one of Shakespeare's longest and most performed works during his lifetime.